American style border control to save our souls...

The Tories have renewed interest in the idea of a dedicated border police force, describing the current system as being inadequate. In a new report commissioned by former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens, the case was put forward for a special force, complete with its own chief constable, to combat such jeopardies as illegal immigration, human trafficking and gun and drug smuggling. All right!

Staying true to his roots, David Cameron welcomed the suggestions, saying that there was insufficient protection against "the drug dealers, people traffickers, gun smugglers and terrorists who pose a threat to our way of life". Ironically, Lord Stevens is also an adviser to Gordon Brown, suggesting that all those theories about the bipartisan nature of UK politics being nothing more than a dirty scam are completely true.

Playing further on the popular notions that the public are afraid of anything strange or different to themselves, Cameron upped the fear-mongering stakes by saying that, "If you want to know why the government has no clue how many immigrants are in our country and why our streets seem to have so many weapons and drugs - there is your answer."

After patting himself on the back and sticking his head a little further up his own ass, he continued with: "Our borders are literally our first line of defence, so we've got to do all we can to strengthen them."

In fairness, perhaps the Complacent One has a point or two. The current government does seem to be more than a little inept when it comes to managing the borders. There's always somebody getting shot or somebody sticking a needle in their arm that's full of some foreign and exotic substances.

To Westmonster, the approach suggested by Stevens and Co. suggests that the only ways that UK politicians can think to solve our problems is to become more Americanised in their policies. The U.S. is famous for its border control policies - particularly on the Mexican border, where attempted immigrants can be shot on sight by border guard snipers - and it seems that we're set to be taking the same no-nonsense approach to our own immigration tactics.

Whether or not the constant leaning towards American ideas suggests that the United States government is more enlightened than ours remains to be seen. What is clear though, once again, is that UK politicians don't really have imaginations of their own.

Written by Oli Anderson on 1 Jul 2008 3:32 PM. Permalink